Responsive // Secret 7": initial ideas

I have chosen to respond to the Secret 7" competition because I had a lot of fun working on it last year and it's for a good cause. I didn't make it in last year, but I went to the opening night and felt very inspired by all the amazing work on show, so hopefully I have a better chance this year.

Go - The Maccabees

I chose this song to design a cover for because it is already a favourite song of mine and I love the energy about it.

• The song gives me a sense of invincibility as it feels so powerful in parts.
• It is very dramatic as it goes quickly from slow to fast at a few points throughout

Lyrics that stood out to me:

"Left you there in the sunlight" - This seems to mean that he neglected the person in the relationship, when he needed to save them and care for them.

"The skins we've known no longer fit us" - They aren't a good match anymore and things have changed for them.

"They'll call out with a name by which I'd never call you" - Showing how the person has changed and grown out of things.

"It was not enough it's never enough and it never was" - Maybe love was not enough for them, or just their relationship was not enough to satisfy them.

These lyrics could give me a good basis for a concept. The song seems to be about a relationship that two people have grown out of, beyond their control. They have both changed and can't make each other happy anymore.

Possible mediums:

• Acrylic paint
• Watercolour
• Pencils
• Digital - graphics tablet

I'd like to try hand rendered mediums to be able to loosely express the emotions of the song.

(Across)

1. Two small hands reaching towards each other, unable to touch anymore. This communicates separation and desperation.
2. "Left you there in the sunlight" - the person is stuck behind bars while the sun beats down on them.
3. On a smaller scale.
4. A skeletal hand inside loose skin - "The skins we've known no longer fit us".
5. Hands reaching out, and fading as they get closer - to show it is impossible to touch again.
6. a blurry face - they don't recognise each other anymore.
7. a heart broken into four parts, it can no longer be whole - the relationship is broken.
8. Similar idea.

1. A rose with thorns on the stalk, but a hand instead of the flower - their touch is delicate and deadly and isn't enjoyable anymore.
2. A hand reaching out with a shattered gradient - similar concept.
3. Sunlight pouring in - "Left you there in the sunlight"
4. small scribbled faces one by one getting less clear - "They're calling you by a name that I've never called you" - He doesn't recognise the person anymore.
5. Sunlight pouring down on somebody, showing how it is overwhelming.
6. Sunlight pouring down on a curled up body to signify distress or sadness, with effects that show a storm-like atmosphere.
7. Variation
8. A smudged crying face to connotate heartbreak.
9. Variations of the sun beam idea.
10. Scribbled faces getting less clear, with a separate face as the other person.

From these ideas I would like to try out the small hands design, as it is very simple and bold, it clearly signifies loss and separation.

The skeletal hand with skin idea could be interesting, along with the ideas with the sun beams, as I could make some colourful vector drawings.

The heart designs are too simple and not clear enough.